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FOR 57 years, Tony Iommi has been Black Sabbath’s keeper of the flame.
He is “Master Of The Riffs” — some say he invented heavy metal — and he is the only band member to stay the course.
“Everybody else has come and gone and come back,” the guitarist tells me in his soft Brummie tones. “I’ve been the constant one.”
Talking to the affable Iommi, 77, it’s hard to imagine that he’s responsible for some of rock’s darkest, dirtiest, most bone-crunching riffs.
Tomorrow, he and the rest of the original line-up face their final curtain.
It’s our last chance to hear Paranoid, War Pigs and Iron Man performed live by the four musicians who created them.
No doubt all eyes will be on the singer, the “Prince Of Darkness” himself.
Despite complaining to me recently that he has enough health issues “to fill a medical dictionary”, Ozzy Osbourne is set to give his hometown of Birmingham a hellraising last hurrah.
But let’s not forget that the Back To The Beginning extravaganza at Villa Park also marks the end of a journey for bassist Geezer Butler, drummer Bill Ward — and Iommi.
Sabbath are held in highest esteem by the bands that followed in their wake, hence an incredible supporting cast.
With Rage Against The Machine’s Tom Morello serving as musical director, there’s a blizzard of metal titans paying their dues.
Metallica, Slayer, Pantera, Alice In Chains, Sammy, Hagar, Steven Tyler (Aerosmith), Billy Corgan (Smashing Pumpkins), Duff McKagan and Slash (Guns N’ Roses), Fred Durst (Limp Bizkit) — the list goes on.
“It’s a great honour,” says Iommi. “I’m so proud of everyone who has come forward to support Sabbath.
“They’ve come from everywhere to be a part of something. This is a real one-off.”
Iommi is particularly chuffed that his old mucker Ward, who he first met at Birchfield Road School, is back in the Sabbath fold for the first time since 2005.
At school, I didn’t even know that Ozzy could sing
Iommi
“Bill and I were in a couple of bands before Sabbath,” he says, “and that’s when we went round to Ozzy’s house looking for a singer. It was how it all started.”
Seeing that the gig is called Back To The Beginning, I ask Iommi to sift through the mists of time to describe how the band came together.
He begins by giving me his first impressions of Ozzy before moving on to Geezer.
“At school, I didn’t even know that Ozzy could sing,” he says. “It was a racket at first, I must say, but after we’d been playing for a while, he got really good.”
As for the singer’s madcap behaviour, Iommi adds: “He got more loony as we went on. In the early days, we’d be on this little stage at a club or somewhere and we had this thing between us.
“If I broke a string, I’d shout to Ozzy, ‘Organise a raffle, organise a raffle!’ which meant, ‘Talk to the audience’.
“He wasn’t very good at that in the early days, he didn’t know what to say.
“But he got more and more confident and, eventually, he became like he is — very out front.”
Iommi moves on to Geezer and says: “Before Sabbath, Bill and I used to play these all-nighters at a place in Birmingham.
“I always remember seeing Geezer there, crawling up walls because of the drugs they were on in those days.
“Me and Bill used to think, ‘Blimey, he’s mad, that guy’. Of course, when we got together with him, we realised he was very, very sensible.
“Geezer had never played bass before — he was a guitar player — but it was amazing how quickly he picked it up.”
So what about Iommi himself? “Originally, I wanted to play drums,” he replies, “but because of where we lived with my parents, you couldn’t get a drum kit in the house. It was so small.
“My mother bought me a guitar, one of these cheap £20 ones from a catalogue, and I sat in my room learning to play. I really enjoyed it.”
Then he adds with a self-deprecating chuckle: “And I’m still trying to learn to play the guitar!”
This was the early Sixties when one band in particular caught Iommi’s ear — The Shadows led by his guitar hero Hank Marvin.
“I used to listen to the Top 20 on my little radio,” he says.
“The Shadows really inspired me because I loved their sound and style.
“They were an instrumental band and it was great because I had something to learn and to relate to. Then I could go off and do my own thing.”
I thought that I’d become involved in the scene in some way and I didn’t expect to become a musician
Iommi
Iommi was also shaped by his tough upbringing in Aston.
Of the neighbourhood where he lived, he says: “It was rough and gang infested. You had to be careful walking round the streets because you’d get beaten up if you were in the wrong area.
“I started doing martial arts — judo and karate — purely to protect myself,” he continues.
“I went training three or four times a week.
“I thought that I’d become involved in the scene in some way and I didn’t expect to become a musician.”
Iommi recalls having “a dream of being on a stage, look-ing out, I always thought it was to do with martial arts but, of course, it wasn’t. I later realised it was about being on stage playing guitar”.
At 17, he had a horrific industrial accident which would have a profound effect on Black Sabbath’s signature heavy guitar sound.
While operating a guillotine press in a sheet-metal factory, Iommi lost the tips of the middle and ring fingers on his right hand.
He says: “I went to the hospital and they said, ‘You might as well forget playing the guitar’.
“I just couldn’t accept that attitude so I made my own fingertips with thimbles. I had to come up with a totally different way of playing.
“I also worked on the guitar all the time. I had it in bits and put it back together, trying to make it more comfortable to play.
“Eventually, that extended to experimenting with amplifiers, making a sound that would be more full.”
By the time Sabbath, originally known as Earth, got together in 1968, Iommi was on a mission to make a success of it despite financial hardships.
“Oh God, I drove the bloody van!” he exclaims. “Unloaded the gear, played, drove back.
“We were hard up. We might make 15 quid and, on our way home, stop off and spend it all at a fish and chip shop.
“But it was great because we started from nothing and we went through the whole thing together.
“We became glued to each other, we lived in each other’s pockets, and it really made us a band.”
Iommi continues: “The name was Geezer’s idea after he watched a Boris Karloff film called Black Sabbath. It was appropriate for our music and it stuck.
“When we were Earth, we got misbooked because they thought we were a pop band. We absolutely died a death!”
An all-important step for Sabbath, like any up-and- coming act, was getting a record deal.
Iommi remembers how it happened: “We used to play at a club in Birmingham where Jim Simpson, who became our first manager, would get people to come down and see us.
“Of course 99 per cent of them said ‘no’ and one per cent said ‘yes’. We were playing something different. In those days, it was all soul, not our kind of music.”
The self-titled debut album contains the song Black Sabbath which bears Iommi’s first great riff.
He regards it as their breakthrough moment.
“That track hit home,” he says. “It was so different and we knew straight away, ‘That’s it, that’s what we want to do, that’s the benchmark’.”
Iommi took on a lot of the responsibility at the time, getting the others out of bed and into the studio by 9am.
“Everybody needs somebody to direct them,” he affirms. “Otherwise it turns into chaos.”
That first album, now regarded as a trailblazing triumph, landed to lukewarm reviews but it didn’t deter Iommi and his bandmates.
I always remember somebody — I won’t mention his name — came to review us. He left unknown to us and we DIDN’T play, but he still reviewed the show. What does that tell you?
Iommi
“Of course, you never want a bad review but you have to believe in what you do,” he says.
“If we did get a reasonably good review, we’d bloody faint, but we never lost that belief and that’s what made us stronger.
“I always remember somebody — I won’t mention his name — came to review us. He left unknown to us and we DIDN’T play, but he still reviewed the show. What does that tell you?”
Next came the album which propelled Sabbath to the stratosphere, Paranoid, with its iconic three-minute adrenaline rush of a title track.
Iommi says: “We never went to the States with the first album but Paranoid opened up America for us.”
And yet the song itself was almost an afterthought, as he explains.
“When we were finishing the album, we went out to get something to eat.
“The producer came out and said to me, ‘We need another track. We haven’t got enough tracks’. So I had to come up with Paranoid. I waited for the others to come back and played it to them.
“Geezer wrote some lyrics, the guys learnt the song and we recorded it there and then.
“It was supposed to be filler but it was the one that took off — and we ended up on Top Of The Pops.”
Appearing on the UK’s premier pop showcase went against everything Sabbath stood for in their quest “to be an album band taken seriously for our music”.
Iommi says: “It was funny. You’ve got people like Cilla Black and then us. Bloody odd combination, it was!
“And the last thing we wanted to do was attract screaming girls.”
After Paranoid, Sabbath were on a roll, producing a string of high-octane, high-quality albums — Master Of Reality (1971), Vol.4 (1972), Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (1973) and Sabotage (1975).
“For each album, we tried different things,” says Iommi. “On Master Of Reality, I started tuning down a bit to get an even heavier sound.
“The whole vibe on Vol. 4 was great. We went to Los Angeles where John du Pont was unfortunate enough to rent us his house.
“It was a fantastic place with a ballroom, swimming pools and, God, did we have some fun.”
It was only after ten years in the business that the wheels started to fall off for Sabbath, resulting in Ozzy’s exit.
“Obviously, drugs were involved,” says Iommi. “It got to a stage where Ozzy had lost interest. He’d go missing for a couple of days in Los Angeles — things like that.
“I was nominated to go to the record company and make all the excuses. We were coming up with riffs but it just wasn’t going anywhere.
“It got to a point where I had to say, ‘Look, we’ll have to replace Ozzy or break up’. At the time, it was best for both of us and Ozzy went off and did his own thing.”
Sabbath regrouped with Ronnie James Dio taking over on lead vocals, the first of a succession of singers.
Then, in the late Nineties, the original Sabbath reformed and toured until 2005.
Minus drummer Ward, they got back together for the Rick Rubin-produced 13 (released in 2013) and played live again until 2017.
Now, eight years on, Sabbath are making their last stand.
They’ve all had well-documented health issues but Iommi and Ozzy see the funny side.
Ozzy even called himself “Iron Man” after surgeons inserted bolts in his neck following a fall at his home in the outskirts of Los Angeles
“He should be called the Six Million Dollar Man,” laughs Iommi. “I hear from him every few days and we complain to each other.
“We’ve all had problems so it’s quite an achievement for us to get on stage again after so many years.
“We’ll do the gig – then we’ll probably keel over!”
GEORGE RUSSELL claims he is all set to sign a new Mercedes deal, silencing speculation he could be dumped for Max Verstappen.
The Brit, 27, is out of contract next year and his boss Toto Wolff confirmed in Austria he had held talks with four-time world champion Verstappen about a move.
But SunSport understands a new offer will be presented to Russell before next month’s Belgium Grand Prix.
Russell believes that team-mate Kimi Antonelli would be the driver to make way for Verstappen in the unlikely event that the Dutchman is to leave Red Bull for Mercedes.
Ahead of Sunday’s British GP at Silverstone, Russell said: “I want to continue with Mercedes into the future. Toto has never let me down, has always given me his word.
“He’s also got to do what’s right for his team, which includes me and the thousands of people who work for Mercedes.
“For me it’s nothing to worry about, as I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere, and whoever my team-mate is doesn’t concern me either, so I’ll just focus on the driving.
“It’ll happen when the time is right. I expect in the next couple of weeks. But we’ll need to wait and see.
“There hasn’t been a lack of interest, let’s say. But I’ve been focused on my side, I am loyal to Mercedes.
“The likelihood I’m not at Mercedes next year is exceptionally low.”
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There had been talk of Verstappen taking a year out from F1, as well as being linked with Mercedes and Aston Martin.
He became a new dad in May and has been dipping his toes in other areas of motorsport like GT3.
But Verstappen, 27, who denied he would take an F1 sabbatical, said: “I’ll race F1 for sure and I’ll try, in the future, to combine it with any kind of other racing that is possible, that I can prepare for.
“I do want to explore a bit out of F1 which I’m already doing with testing, but eventually also racing.”
THE Chase star Jenny Ryan is giving away comedy show tickets for FREE just days before she takes to the stage.
The quizmaster, 43, is set to appear at The Pleasance Theatre in London over multiple dates in July and August.
Jenny will be performing a special singalong comedy investigation all about Swedish pop group Abba.
The descriptions says she will go “public with her theory of the Mamma Mia multiverse”.
Tickets are usually priced around £15, but a number of tickets have been released for her July 5 show for no cost at all.
Fans can bag themselves a free ticket to her one-hour show and will only need to pay a £4 admin fee.
While those keen to be in the audience can also purchase a ticket for a little as £10, as stated on the website, depending on the day you go.
Although fans may be able to secure themselves a bargain, a show insider said it’s not highly unusual that free tickets are given away.
A rep for the show told The Sun: “Often in hot weather for preview shows, if they’re not completely sold out, it is standard practice to offer some complimentary tickets.”
Jenny will be previewing her brand new show, Björn Yesterday on Saturday.
Jenny, known to many as The Vixen from The Chase, surprised fans last year as she embarked on a new adventure.
Jenny hit the road last September with her Out of the Box tour, which ran until November.
At the time she shared her excitement and nerves about stepping away from her stern quizmaster persona with the new venture.
Speaking to show host Ed Balls on GMB, Jenny explained: “We took the show to Edinburgh Fringe last year really on sort of a whim.
“It’s a big risk to take something like this, as presenters know, after a stern role and you try something new.
“It’s a bit of a challenge for people to change their expectations and perceptions of you.”
The former MP joked “Tell me about it!”, referencing his segue from a political career into presenting.
When Ranvir Singh suggested that Jenny might find it difficult to return to The Chase after opening up to audiences, she said: “Putting myself out there to show a softer side of me, putting everything out there, my background, everything… was a bit of a risk.
“But we sold out [at the Fringe] and we got such excellent feedback.”
The Chase first premiered on ITV back in 2009 and has become a firm favourite among viewers since then. The roster of professional quizzers ('chasers') has grown significantly since the show's launch.
A ONE-year-old girl has died as cops launch an urgent investigation into her death.
Police were called to a property in Sheffield yesterday evening after reports of “concern for a child”.
The force were alerted by paramedics from an address on Overend Way.
Yorkshire Ambulance Service rushed the tot to hospital but she tragically died a shortly after.
A South Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “Last night, Wednesday 2 July, we received a call from Yorkshire Ambulance Service alerting us to a concern for a child at a property on Overend Way in Sheffield.
“Officers responded and a one year-old child was taken to hospital by ambulance, where she sadly later died.
“Officers are working to ascertain the circumstances that lead to the child’s death and our investigation remains on-going.”
BOBBY Brazier sparked reunion rumours with his ex-girlfriend after they left an awards bash together.
The actor, 22, won a National Film Award for his role in Paramount+ crime drama Curfew.
Afterwards, he left the venue Porchester Hall with his ex Tillie Amartey.
Tillie, 22, is well-known for playing Stacey Neville in school drama Waterloo Road.
The pair were snapped smiling and strolling together towards a waiting car.
Bobby and Tillie reportedly dated previously on and off for a year.
During his stint on Strictly Come Dancing in 2023, the star was said to be “besotted” with his former lover.
At the time, a source close to the actor said he was hopeful he could rekindle his romance with Tillie.
They told The Mirror: “Bobby was really keen on her, but she decided to call time on the relationship, feeling they weren’t compatible.
“There was no big row and, as they have always been on/off, Bobby hasn’t given up.
“He is doing all the running at the moment.
“Bobby is messaging Tillie constantly in between rehearsals and has also asked her to the Strictly studio.”
Last month, it was announced Bobby is leaving his role on EastEnders after four years.
He joined the BBC soap in 2022, playing returning character Freddie Slater.
Bobby scooped a National Television Award last year for rising star in the role.
An EastEnders spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that Bobby Brazier will be leaving EastEnders, and we wish him all the best for the future.”
A telly insider revealed: “Bosses had a meeting with Bobby only recently as they had a plan in mind for a storyline, and it just so happened that Bobby was also thinking that now was the right time to look for other opportunities outside the show.
Bobby Brazier has risen through the ranks to become a well known face on British TV.
As the son of Jade Goody and Jeff Brazier, he has been well-known amongst the public from a young age.
Bobby first embarked on a showbiz career when he was just 16-years old when he started modelling.
The star made his catwalk debut in 2020 at Milan Fashion Week, but it wasn’t long before he had his eyes on a TV career.
He shot to prominence in 2022 when he was cast as Freddie Slater in EastEnders.
The incredibly acting skills displayed on screen earned him the National Television Award in the ‘Rising Star’ category.
His famous dad was in tears as Bobby accepted the award on stage in front of the likes of Holly Willoughby and Alison Hammond.
It wasn’t long before BBC bosses wanted him to take part in the 21st series of Strictly Come Dancing.
He clearly impressed the viewers with his dancing skills as he made the grand final and was a runner-up.
Since then, viewers were delighted when he returned to his role in the long-running BBC One soap.
“The timing of the decision worked for both, but his final scenes are not for a while yet.
“The character has had a great run, but the time is now right for Bobby to look for other opportunities, and for EastEnders to wave goodbye to Freddie Slater.”
Clair Norris (Bernadette Taylor) and Matthew James Morrison (Felix Baker) recently waved goodbye to Walford.
In addition, Molly Rainford, who has played Anna Knight since 2023, is also set to depart.
KATE Moss knocks them Stone Age dead in a leopard print outfit.
The supermodel, 51, wore the creation from fashion house boss Donatella Versace’s final range.
Kate has worked with the company throughout her career and is a favourite of Donatella, 70.
She is stepping down and said this collection was “created to celebrate the soul of the Versace woman”.
It comes after Kate’s wellness brand Cosmoss recently went bust with debts topping £2.9million.
Papers signed by the model, show the company has little more than £5,000 in the bank and £241,000 of leftover stock.
In total, it owes unsecured creditors £2,939,729.29.
A source said: “Kate turned her back on partying in lockdown and became obsessed with wellbeing and healing.
“But now she’s gone full circle and is back on the party circuit, it seems the business has hit the skids, too.
“She has called in liquidators and now just wants to put it behind her.
“Kate put her heart and soul into Cosmoss, but it didn’t work out.”
The Cosmoss website — selling products including a £125 Sacred Mist perfume and £95 pots of face cream — is no longer taking orders.
A NEW LOOK summer dress that “doesn’t crease in your suitcase” is flying off the rails for a bargain price.
Shoppers are flocking to snap up the bargain buy with only a few sizes left.
The elegant Blue Floral Print Slit Hem Crepe Midi Dress can be yours for just £23.99.
The ultimate summer dress, it can be donned for weddings and summer parties.
Or you could even opt as a casual outfit for running errands.
It could be paired with trainers, summer wedges, or some high heels, depending on the venue.
And, it is also machine washable for convenience.
But fashion lovers are urged to get their orders with some sizes nearly sold out.
Both size 8 and size 20 have just a few left in stock.
The product description reads: “The figure-skimming silhouette of this blue midi dress is offset by puff sleeves and a hem slit.
“The white floral print heightens the maximal appeal.”
One impressed customer who nabbed the outfit said: “Lovely lightweight summer dress!
“Great fit and a good length.”
And it’s perfect for when you jet off abroad on holiday too with another customer saying it “doesn’t crease in your suitcase”.
“It’s absolutely on trend,” said another.
This comes as shoppers have been rushing to pick up another New Look summer dress that’s flattering for all body types.
The £27 maxi dress is perfect for the hot weather with its airy design and stylish puffed sleeves.
The Black Puff Sleeve Midi Dress features a ruched bodice and a flared skirt that will give a cinched appearance on all figures, finished with an elasticated waist.
Everyone loves a dress with pockets, and the practical feature makes the dress even better for everyday wear.
The New Look Pink Floral Print Puff Sleeve Lace Insert Milkmaid Midi Dress is also currently on sale at £37.49 – reduced from £49.99.
It’s fitted waist and intricate cut-out pattern, will create a cinched affect.
Meanwhile, the square-cut neckline and puffy sleeves both add a touch of sophistication.
The length also lends itself to both formal, or laid back events.